Anti-abortion advocates drop federal lawsuit against Vermont after lawmakers nix language targeting crisis pregnancy centers

National anti-abortion advocates and two Vermont-based crisis pregnancy centers have dropped a 2023 federal lawsuit against the state over a law passed the same year that made the centers, specifically, subject to existing state laws targeting false and misleading advertising. The two centers, and others like them around the country, provide counseling and some basic obstetrics from an anti-abortion perspective.

The end of the case came just two weeks after lawmakers made substantial changes to the legal language that prompted the suit in the first place. Gov. Phil Scott signed the changes into law on May 13 as part of a broader package that supporters say will bolster protections for reproductive and gender-affirming health care in the state.

The legal group spearheading the suit, Alliance Defending Freedom, claimed in a press release last week that lawmakers amended the 2023 measure — which passed with overwhelming House and Senate support — “as a result” of the group’s litigation. 

But in interviews this week, legislative leaders said that framing wasn’t accurate.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs included Aspire Now, a pregnancy center in Williston; Branches Pregnancy Resource Center, another in Brattleboro; and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a nationwide anti-abortion advocacy nonprofit. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs described the 2023 law as “viewpoint discrimination” against the centers. They argued it ran afoul of protections granted by the First Amendment and impinged on the centers’ ability to effectively serve people seeking their support.

Pro-abortion rights advocates, including backers of the 2023 law, have accused crisis pregnancy centers of advertising in a misleading way that lures in patients considering an abortion in hopes of persuading them to change course once they’re in the door.

Some of what the plaintiffs took issue with in the 2023 law came in several pages of legislative “findings,” including the assertion that some crisis pregnancy centers “have promoted patently false or biased medical claims about abortion, pregnancy, contraception, and reproductive health care providers.” 

The law went on to state that a crisis pregnancy center whose advertising was “untrue or clearly designed to mislead the public about the nature of services provided” would be liable for committing “an unfair and deceptive act and practice in commerce.”

But the measure enacted last month stripped from state law the specific references to crisis pregnancy centers added two years ago. It also nixed lawmakers’ findings that the centers sometimes provide misleading or outright inaccurate information.

Instead, the new law replaced references to the pregnancy centers with more general language stating “any person” who makes false or misleading claims about health care services they provide is subject to the existing laws designed to protect consumers.

While lawyers for the centers said the changes were prompted by their lawsuit, Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast — who co-sponsored this year’s law and chairs the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, which reviewed it — disputed that.

Lyons said in an interview Tuesday that she thought it was a good idea to broaden the language passed in 2023 to encompass more health care providers than just crisis pregnancy centers — but that idea had nothing to do with the legal challenge. She said she had concerns that preceded the lawsuit with how the language approved in 2023 singled out one type of health care provider. 

“I’m very glad that we did it. But it was not in response to a lawsuit,” said Lyons, who also helmed the same committee in 2023, speaking about the changes in this year’s law, S.28. “We want to ensure that anyone who is working in this arena has high ethical standards — and adheres to those ethical standards.”

She also noted crisis pregnancy centers would still be subject to false and misleading advertising statutes under the latest law, even though they aren’t named explicitly.

Vermont House Majority Leader Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, who chaired the House Health Care Committee in 2023 and still sits on the panel this year, also pushed back against the characterization that the changes were prompted by the lawsuit, saying, “I do not agree with it at all.”

Houghton added that legislators heard testimony from a number of different witnesses about the changes — some for, and others against — before approving them. Supporters included Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which wrote in a late March memo to the House committee that it was “pleased to see these standards elevated for all medical professionals.”

The majority leader noted, though, she was “personally disappointed” that some of the legislative “findings” about crisis pregnancy centers were removed from the law this year. 

Alliance Defending Freedom did not respond to a request for comment this week about its decision to drop the lawsuit. The conservative, Christian legal group is based in Arizona and played a key role in the successful effort to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. 

Crisis pregnancy centers have expanded their reach in recent years as abortion clinics have been shuttering at the same time. The centers ramped up activity after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. Without a nationwide right to an abortion and with dozens of states outlawing or restricting access to the procedure, the centers have proliferated to fill the void. With that expanded reach, though, has come intensifying scrutiny of the facilities, particularly for their advertising strategies. 

There are seven such facilities in Vermont, according to the Crisis Pregnancy Center Map, a project of the University of Georgia.

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark’s office had been defending the state in the lawsuit. Clark wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday she was “pleased” the suit had been pulled.

She also signalled support for the changes enacted this month, saying that when she testified to legislators as the 2023 law was being written, she supported “a broader bill that more closely aligns with the changes” legislators made recently.

“I will always support strong consumer protection laws that prohibit lying, misrepresentation, and obfuscation across all sectors of Vermont’s economy,” Clark wrote.

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